Mission A: Find Ash
by Hats77
Summary: "It's like he just snapped..." After 3 of Ash's Pokémon were murdered, Ash disappeared with them, with only the clothes on his back. The whole world finds out and panics. So, Ash's friends decide to look for him. Will they find him, or will he be lost forever? (this is just a Cafemochashipping fanfic that gets lighter and darker at the same time towards the end) First Fanfic
1. Introduction

_**This is a Pokemon fanfic with Ash. WARNING: DEPRESSED/SUICIDAL ASH, SELF-HARMING, DEATH, FIRST FANFIC, AND SUFFERING INCLUDED! DON'T LIKE DON'T READ!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. If I did, I would be banning innocent Pokemon RPGS**_

 _Dawn's PoV_

Isn't it scary when you get a call from your best-friend's mother saying that you friend is missing? I shore was nervous when I got a call from Delia saying that Ash was missing. Apparently, Ash went missing after three of his Pokemon were supposedly 'murdered.' She said it was his Snivy, Oshawott, and Pignite. Whoever did it is currently behind bars. I don't know about the other regions, but the Sinnoh region is in a panic. All the gym leaders, most of the citizens, and even Cynthia want to find Ash. Also, the Pokemon are acting weird. They won't obey commands. Well that was then. Now, I have an idea...

I ran to the phone and called Delia. 'I hope she's home..' I thought. The phone rang, but no one picked up. "Aww crap! I guess I'll try again in a few hours." Maybe May doesn't know.. She probably does. I need someone to talk to.

* * *

 _May's PoV_

I was just watching Max train when I got a phone call from Dawn. "Hi Dawn. How are you?" I greet, expecting to hear usually cheery Dawn. But when I heard her, I was confused. "I'm not doing too well, actually. Didn't you hear the news?" Dawn's voice rang through the phone. She didn't sound happy like I expected. "What's wrong? What news?" I replied with worry evident in my voice. "Well.. Ash went missing after his 3 Pokemon were murdered. I thought you already knew. Oh well, the more ya know right?" Dawn bitterly chuckled at the end, while I was close to tears **(A/N: Not because she's in love with him -_-)** "You're kidding, right?!" I half yell, half cry. "Whoa, May what's wrong?!" I hear Max yell to me, but I was waiting for Dawn's answer. "I'm not kidding. The whole Sinnoh region's in panic. Pokemon aren't obeying orders, and wild Pokemon are straying into the cities," Dawn pauses, probably to let the new information sink in, then continues "and everybody is looking for him. I'm kind of surprised." At this point, I was crying. How is Dawn keeping her cool?! "Aren't you worried about him? How come you aren't crying?!" I scream into the phone.

"I'm most worried about the fact that, I don't know if he brought any Pokemon with him. He could die out there without any!" Dawn never answered my question, but I manage to shake it off. "Ok Dawn, I gotta go. I'll call you back in about an hour." I then hang up the phone. 'I need to calm down.' I thought to myself. "Hey Max, do you want to go get lunch?" I yell, hoping to get a 'yes!' "But it's 11:00. It's not even noon!" Max responds, crushing my hopes. "But I'm _hungry_!" "You're always hungry, but FINE!" Max yells back. "Yay! Ok, let's go.. to the gym. You know, to see everyone. I also need to tell father something." I say cheerfully. 'What are you going to tell Norman?' You might be thinking. Well, I'm going to tell him Ash's missing. I just wish I knew how Ash was currently...

 _ **Until next time, this is all I have.**_


	2. His Ways

I'm sorry if I get some things wrong about the Pokemon. Also, sorry this is a longer chapter. I was very bored. WARNING: DEPRESSED/SUICIDAL ASH, DEATH, FIRST FANFIC, AND SUFFERING INCLUDED! DON'T LIKE DON'T READ! BTW, ASH IS 16! SO EVERYBODY EXCEPT CILAN, BROCK, MAX, + ALL THE ADULTS/CHILDREN (CILAN AND BROCK ARE YOUNG ADULTS) ARE 16 AND ABOVE/UNDER!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. If I did, I would actually have a desktop computer...

* * *

 **Pikachu's PoV (Flashback: 2 hours before Ash's disappearance. Or 2 days before the present.)**

Pikapi's Pi Chu Pika Pikachu Chu Pi Pika. **(A/N: I'm kidding lol)**

Translation of everything Pikachu will be saying/thinking:

Ash's been acting weird lately. He's been pacing in the Pokemon Center like he's waiting for something. He also took a month-long vacation. Cilan, Iris, and I all know he's still, like we are, mourning Snivy, Oshawott, and Pignite. My instincts tell me he's planning something. I won't say anything about it, though. He wouldn't tell me.

"Assshhh! I'm bored," I whine, because, well I'm bored.

Ash turns to look at me. "What do you want me to do about it?" he asks me.

"I don't know," I respond, "Do something! You're just walking around. It's getting boring to watch you."

"I have no idea why you would watch someone pace around a room for an hour, but whatever floats your boat, Pikachu," Ash is starting to get on my nerves, so I decide to annoy him...

"What boat? I don't have a boat,"

"You know what I mean. Now, go do-" I'm usually not one to be annoying, but this is fun.

"I actually have no idea what you're talking about,"

"Yes, you do. Now, go pla-" I cut him off yet again.

"No, please tell me what you mean," Ash didn't reply. After 5 minutes of silence, I know he's ignoring me.

"Um, hellooooo!?" Trying to get his attention won't work... I give up!

I get up and leave. 'I can go play with everyone else!' I think. I walk into the entrance of the Pokemon Center, to find...

Every Pokemon either in their Pokeballs, or napping. Cilan looks either asleep or trying to go to sleep, I can't tell, he has a magazine on his face. Maybe Iris will- nevermind, she's asleep too.

'It's like 14:00, right?' what did they do to get themselves this tired? Wait, did I find myself something to do? I'll find out why they're exhausted, without waking them up and asking!

So, I'm going to ask around a bit. Maybe they didn't do anything, and I'm overreacting... No. They all shouldn't be tired. They all slept like usual. So, I go to ask Ash. He would most likely know the answer. I walk back into the room where Ash is and see him still pacing.

"Hey, Ash, why are the others all tired?" I expected an answer.

"They went for a run. That's why," Ash responds, but I found something else. It was a scar on his arm.

"Where'd you get that scar?" I ask, pointing at it.

"Cut myself on something. No big deal," Ash informs me, but with false information, for I know he's lying.

"You're not telling the truth. Tell me the truth," Ash better tell me the truth. If he doesn't, oh I'll be persistent.

"What, I cut myself. No big deal, hey we-" I must _cut_ him off :3. Now I know. He cut himself because he's depressed.

"Why did you cut yourself? You know, cutting yourself is-" This time, Ash cuts me off.

"I did it because I was bored," That's another lie. That would never be true.

"No, you're depressed because of Snivy, Oshawott, and Pignite! You know, they wouldn't want you to cut yourself. You're better than this," I want to end the argument with that statement, but I never get what I want.

"How do you know?" He hisses, glaring at me. It took me by surprise. He never did that. He also never fought with me. I decide to try and end the argument, I wasn't fighting with him.

"I just know. I'm magic~," I hope he at least giggles. Well, he didn't giggle, but he's not glaring at me anymore!

"I'm tired. Well, I'm off to take a nap. See you at dinner," I still have the feeling Ash is planning something, but I assume it's nothing.

I walk over to a corner and fall asleep...

* * *

 **1 and a half hours later~ 2 days before present**

I wake up to Iris shaking me with a worried expression on her face.

"What's wrong, Iris?" Wait, she doesn't understand me. ARCEUS DAMMIT!

"Oh, well hi Pikachu," she pauses, for suspense, then continues "do you know where Ash is? We don't know where he went.." Everything else she says, I don't hear. My mind flashes back to earlier.

She must have seen my expression because her expression gets more worried.

"What? What is it? Do you know where he is?!" Iris screams at me.

I shake my head and run over to the other Pokemon. I explain that, Ash seemed like he was waiting, the feeling I had, the fight, and that he's depressed. Some of the Pokemon are confused, but most looked horrified.

"I don't know if he killed himself or not!" I ended off what I was saying.

I heard a lot of 'Oh no!'s and 'we need to find him!'s.

Cilan and Iris looked at all of us, a look that said: "please explain what you're talking about to us." Wait, they can't understand any of us. I need to find a way to tell them.

Oh! I have an idea! I run over to Ash's backpack and grab what is called a "notepad." I dig for longer and find something called a "pencil." I remember seeing Ash "writing" when he was like really _really_ bored.

I try and write the best I can "Ash is depressed," but it doesn't look like that at all. A vine grabs my paw and guides it to write what I wanted to say and more. I look around, to see a Snivy fading. I smiled when I recognize it.

"We should wait a while. If he doesn't show up for a day, we'll tell everyone Ash's missing." Cilan always has the best plans. I'm surprised he's the calmest about this situation. I mean, Cilan is Ash's boyfriend.

* * *

 **The next day~ 10:00 a.m. (1 days before the present.)**

I wake up in the morning to find, well Ash isn't here. Now, I'm even more worried! I go tell all the others, and this is their response:

"Wait, really? So we should probably tell all of his friends. Also the authorities. They can search for him," Cilan basically commands us.

"I'll call his mother. She can call the rest of Ash's friends," Iris runs off to go call Ash's mother.

"I'll go tell Nurse Joy and the police. Then, we'll go look around the area. I mean, he couldn't have gone far. He doesn't have any of his Pokeballs," Cilan walks off.

"Hey, you know what we could do?! We could search for clues of where Ash could've gone," Axew suggests.

"If we do, though, we might get lost," I say loudly.

"We can stay inside the Pokemon Center, you know. That way we can't get lost," Axew argues.

"We can get lost in a-" I started, but Pansage cut me off.

"No more arguing! Arguing won't help in this situation, so Pikachu, go do what you feel is right. Axew, go do what you feel is right," Pansage yells, standing between us.

Axew and a few others left to look around the Pokemon Center for clues of Ash's location. Others left to their trainers to help them. I realize Iris might not know Delia's number. I scampered off in the direction Iris went, eventually finding her.

She's messing with the phone, obviously trying to remember Delia's number. I type in Delia's number for her, and she gives me a look that says: thank you.

"Thanks, Pikachu! I appreciate it," Iris thanks me for the help. I leave Iris to do her thing. I have many thoughts going through my mind. Some of them include, 'what am I going to do now?' or 'I'm hungry.' But the one that circles my brain the most is, 'where's Ash?' Is he dead, not alive, but human inside? **(A/N: I hope you get the song reference.)**

Since I'm feeling rather parched, I go to get a drink. I return to see Cilan and Iris talking. I walk over and listen to their conversation:

"..start searching?" I heard the end of what Iris asked Cilan.

"We should start looking in the forest behind the Pokemon Center," Cilan answers. I decide to make myself apparent by screaming "PIKACHU!"

"Hi, Pikachu! Didn't see you there," Iris greets me.

"..." They wouldn't understand me if I spoke, so might as well save my breath.

None of us knew what to do next, so we stared at each other until Nurse Joy came over to us informing us that we have a phone call. So, we followed Nurse Joy to a phone. I recognize immediately who it is when we get there.

"Hi there, is this Iris?" The person on the opposite end of the phone asks after we got there.

"She's Iris, I'm Cilan. May I ask what you name is?" Cilan asks politely.

"My name is Professor Oak. Pokemon researcher of the Kanto region," Professor Oak answers.

"Well, what can we do for you?" Iris asks.

"I wanted to inform you that right before Ash's disappearance, he asked me if he could have his Staraptor. My theory is that he flew somewhere on said Staraptor. We have to figure out where he flew," Professor Oak replies, says bye, and hangs up.

"..."

"..."

"..."

No one says a word.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Well Arceus dammit," Cilan speaks first.

"This isn't the best thing that could happen," I say. They don't understand me, though. I feel very tired and go to find a place to sleep.

When I found a comfortable corner, I try to fall asleep. Sleep doesn't come until about an hour...

* * *

 **4 hours later~ 14:00 or the devil hour. (1 days before present)**

I wake up, from a troubled sleep to the smell of food. I remember I haven't eaten since yesterday. I follow the scent of food, to find everyone eating. There was a bowl of Pokemon Food that was still full, which I assume is mine and also everyone with an anxious look on their faces.

'Cilan and Iris told all the Pokemon about this scenario,' I think as I start eating.

As I eat, some thoughts are going through my mind, such as 'I shouldn't stress myself out about it. What if it's one of those things that's virtually useless. In reality, it's a big problem you need to solve as soon as possible? No! Ash'll be fine. Everything will be back to normal in a few days!'

* * *

 **About 10 minutes~ Pikachu's done eating lunch.**

'I need a break,' I think, as I walk outside.

It looks like everyone's in a scramble. Looking under trees, under cars, even under each other! But looking for what?

I run over to a random Krookodile and ask it, "What is everyone looking for?"

"A boy that the gym leaders of this city, or Chili, Cress, and Cilan want to find. He went missing a few hours ago, so everyone is looking for him," the random Krookodile responds.

"Wait, do you know what he looks like?" I ask.

"Yes, most of us know," the Krookodile replies.

"Okay, thank you. I appreciate it," I thank it.

I leave the Krookodile to do whatever it was doing and head back inside the Pokemon Center.

'Well, that didn't help much. Why does the media have to know everything almost immediately?' I think. As soon as I appear inside the Pokemon Center, Unfezant greets me.

"Hi Pikachu, you went for a short walk. May I ask why it was so short?" Unfezant asks me with her usual politeness.

"Media," I simply answer.

"What'd they do this time?" Unfezant asks, sweatdropping.

I respond with "Well, they weren't doing anything wrong. They were looking for Ash, but I wanted to get my mind off of that topic."

Unfezant responds with, "Oh, ok. Well, we got a brief call from Ash's mother. She said that she told the Kanto and Johto police force about Ash being missing." Unfezant changes the subject, well not really. We're still talking about Ash.

"Ok, hey do you know where the rest are?" I ask.

"Depends on who. Cilan has left to go talk to his brothers with his Pokemon, Iris is playing with the rest of the Pokemon. " Unfezant tells me.

"Okay, thank you," I say as I scamper off in a random direction, almost immediately hitting a wall.

"OW!" I yelp, turning to a different direction and running that way.

I stop about a minute later and look around the Pokemon Center.

'Where's Iris?' I think as I look around, until spotting her. I run over to a spot near them and watch the Iris and the other Pokemon play until Cilan came back.

"Hey guys, I'm back," Cilan says to all of us. He's holding what looks like a bin.

'What's in that?' I think.

"Hi Cilan, so what did your brothers say?" Iris asks Cilan.

"Wait, what? What did he ask them?" I ask to no one in particular.

"Where are the onions," Krookodile jokes.

"No really, I'm curious," I state, turning around to face the Desert Croc Pokemon.

Krookodile continued on the joke with the statement. "He asked his brothers where are the onions."

"Well, riddle me this, why did he ask them that?" I say, knowing he's still joking.

"HE ASKED THEM IF HE COULD BORROW SOME PIECE OF SHIT GARBAGE CAN," Unfezant yells at both of us.

"Language," I playfully snap at Unfezant. With that statement, Unfezant quits trying to talk to us by walking away.

Deciding it's time to get some exercise, I run around the Pokemon Center, nonstop. About 10 minutes later, I need water.

'How on Earth am I going to get water?' I think before remembering Cilan said he had some water.

I walk towards the exit, find Cilan and Iris outside with everyone else. They look like they're training.

'Might as well join them; if they'll let me,' I think, as I make my way over to them. Right before I get to them, a net lands right in front of me. I glance up to see Team Rocket right in front of me.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"To protect the world with devastation!"

"To unite the people within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"It's Jessie!"

"And James!"

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare for a net filled fight!" (A/N: I got nothin'. This is also why I didn't even bother with making James rhyme with Jessie -_-)

"Meowth. That's right!"

When their motto is finished, I see the 3 of them glancing around, looking for something.

"Where's the main twerp?" James finally asks.

"Yeah, is this some kind of a trick?" Jessie asks, looking down at me.

"Haven't you heard? He went missing yesterday," Cilan yells at them, obviously annoyed by their presence.

"Oh, that's too bad. Hey Jessie, shouldn't we help look for him?" James asks, glancing at Jessie.

"Yeah, I'm with James. This is an unfair fight without da main twerp," Meowth agrees.

"Unfair is what we're about, you two. Besides, we-" Jessie stops when she glances down at me, I still haven't moved, and I'm giving her my cute face.

"Oh fine, we'll leave you guys alone today. But if the twerp doesn't show up in a month, we're going to attack again," Jessie comes down with the final decision. Team Rocket then turned around, climbing back in their balloon, and leaving.

The rest of us weren't saying a thing. Now, there was a deadline for finding Ash and the whole world knew.

'Everything seems to get worse by the second,' I think as I walk back inside the Pokemon Center.

I need a plan. To find Ash, of course.

Plan 1: We're going to have to look everywhere we can, as now we know Ash has his Staraptor. I'm going to need everyone's help, though. By everyone, I mean Misty, Brock, Tracey, May, Max, Dawn, Iris, Cilan, and all their Pokemon. Ash's Pokemon too, of course. They can each have a few of Ash's Pokemon plus their own with them. There are also almost enough people to search 2 per region. Misty and Brock could search Johto. Tracey and May could search Kanto. Max and Dawn could search Hoenn. Iris could search Sinnoh with all Ash's Sinnoh Pokemon. Cilan could search Unova with me and Ash's Unova Pokemon.

Plan 2: We all group up together and look for Ash. It would take longer and we risk him flying away, but we search more thoroughly.

'I should probably go let the others vote,' I think. So, I do exactly that. I explain the 2 plans and they eventually decide plan 1.

"It would be better because it's Winter Ash'll stick out like a sore thumb," I heard someone say.

"Yeah, he would probably freeze to death before we could find him if we chose plan 2," I heard someone else say. I froze at that statement.

'No, he wouldn't die, he can't die,' I think as I chuckle slowly.

"Then that's the plan! All we have to do is find a way to tell Iris and Cilan about it," I stop to think about this.

"Meowth can help ya guys. It wouldn't be fun to steal ya guys without da main twerp to mess everything up." We all turned around to see Meowth standing there. "Really? You have to promise not to hurt us, though," I say as Meowth walks up to us.

"I promise," Meowth says, for once using correct grammar. We all rush over to where Iris and Cilan are. I explain the plan a second time, this time Meowth translates it to Cilan and Iris.

"Ok, we can do that. We just need one thing: Ash's friend's phone numbers," Cilan said. After that, Meowth leaves and we all decide we'll tell Ash's other friends about the plan in the morning...

* * *

How was that for a second chapter? I really put a lot more effort into this one than the previous chapter. Hope it was at least proficient :) I'm also sorry for the cliffhanger, I'm also sorry about the fact that this one was, like, 3,000 words. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	3. The Conversation

Thank you for continuing to read this. Again, I'm sorry if I get something wrong. I research about Pokemon BW whenever I'm not sure about something.

 **WARNING: DEPRESSED/SUICIDAL ASH, DEATH, FIRST FANFIC, AND SUFFERING INCLUDED! DON'T LIKE DON'T READ! BTW, ASH IS 16, SO EVERYBODY EXCEPT CILAN, BROCK, MAX, + ALL THE ADULTS/CHILDREN (CILAN AND BROCK ARE YOUNG ADULTS) ARE 16 AND ABOVE/UNDER!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. If I did, I wouldn't be here.

If it seems like my writing style changed, IT'S BEEN SO LONG! Also, I started the beginning of the chapter awhile ago but deemed it good enough to keep. Your welcome~

* * *

 **3rd Person PoV. With Ash in the Present.**

Ash had really started to regret going out in the cold, much less in a forest. He'd put Staraptor's Pokeball in his coat pocket, which he hid and forgot to bring, anyway. So, now he was alone, in winter, in a forest. Nothing could get worse, right?

Incorrect, he was hungry as well.

'I was going to bring Staraptor for when I wanted to go back to society. Now, I can't even do that,' Ash mused as he walked into a random direction.

'Wait, didn't I also go into the biggest forest I could find?' Ash realized.

He found out he forgot Staraptor after he was already in the middle of the forest.

Ash figured he couldn't search for a way out of this forest on an empty stomach.

'Wait, how the hell am I going to find food?' Ash thought as he glanced around in a panic until he found a berry bush. The berry bush had blue-ish looking berries on them, with darker blue spots, and a light blue stem.

Ash had looked at a picture of these berries in a survival magazine before he left the Pokemon Center for the wilderness. They were called OBs. He had forgotten what 'OB' stood for, but Ash remembered seeing that they were edible and making a mental note to look out for them. **(A/N:** **OBs=Oran Berries)**

'Thank Arceus I remembered them after 3 days,' Ash thought, then realized he'd forgotten to eat in in 3 days. Ash was slightly surprised he was just now getting hungry. Or noticing that he was hungry, at least.

Ash started towards the bush and picked a lot of berries, eating them after he picked them. Ash started walking around the forest for a bit longer. He hoped no one was worrying about him. A little piece of him, though, said that it would be a good thing for them to worry. Then, they'd look for him.

'But in other regions,' Ash bitterly thought, as he continued the long trek through the forest.

About 10 minutes later, a Pokemon jumped out at Ash. He'd forgotten what Pokemon it was, so he used the Pokedex. The Pokedex identified it as a Patrat.

The Patrat decided it wanted to attack Ash and attempted to use Iron Tail, completely missing Ash and landing in a pile of snow nearby. The Patrat tried to retaliate by using Tackle, which also missed Ash and landed itself in a tree.

Being smart enough, Ash used this time to escape. He whipped around the opposite direction the Patrat was and fled. Ash managed to escape it, panting when he decided it was safe enough.

After Ash caught his breath, he continued aimlessly walking through the big, thick, and cold forest.

* * *

 **With Pikachu, still present & 3rd person PoV.**

Pikachu was having a better day than he expected, judging Ash was gone and all...

'Everyone agreed! We can start searching tomorrow,' Pikachu thought excitedly as he waited patiently for lunch to be ready. It was 14:00, or the devil hour.

'I guess I'll sleep when I'm dead!' **(A/N: Also, a song reference Cx)**

As Pikachu was thinking of random songs, he didn't notice the Axew sneaking up on him.

"Boo!"

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Pikachu screamed, whipping around to see a laughing Axew.

"Your reaction was priceless! Hahahahahahahaha," Axew at this point was on the floor he was laughing so hard.

Pikachu glared at Axew, then remembered his good mood and smiled.

"What's up with you?" Axew asked, getting up from the floor.

"I'm in a good mood. Why?" Pikachu said, giving the Tusk Pokemon an accusing look.

"By this time, you would've started chasing me. You're no fun anymore," Axew yelled, turning to face the opposite direction Pikachu was in. Axew continued to run away as fast as he could.

When Axew left, Pikachu wasn't in as good of a mood. But still in a good one, nonetheless. He continued to wait for something to happen when Cilan called Pikachu over.

"Hey, Pikachu?!" Cilan called over.

Pikachu ran over to Cilan, wanting to know what he wanted.

"What?" Pikachu chirped.

"Well, Iris just left for the Sinnoh region after Professor Oak sent over Ash's Pokemon. All the other Pokemon know, except you, so I just wanted to tell you," Cilan smiled.

"Well okay," Pikachu responded.

"I don't know what you're saying, but okay," Cilan responded.

Pikachu just nodded and walked away. They had all of Ash's friends' phone numbers, his friends had the help of Ash's Pokemon, they should be able to find Ash in a few weeks! Pikachu glanced around the Pokemon Center, people were calling other people, searching, yelling, everything you'd do if you found out the sweetest boy you'll ever meet has gone missing.

Pikachu walked around, looking for someone to talk to. He then spotted Unfezant.

'Hey, I could talk to Unfezant. She looks bored!' Pikachu thought, racing over to Unfezant.

"Hey, Unfezant!" Pikachu greeted excitedly.

Unfezant raised an eyebrow, "You seem excited today, Pikachu."

"Why is everyone surprised I'm in a good mood today?" Pikachu was genuinely curious.

"Uh, your trainer is gone..?" Unfezant replied in a know-it-all kind of way.

"Oh..." Pikachu trailed off.

"I'd expect you to know. Anyway, what did you want to talk about?" Unfezant returned to her usual attitude.

"I don't know, I was just bored and wanted someone to talk to," Pikachu replied.

"Okay, well did you hear that Tracey and May have made it to Kanto?" Unfezant sat down along with Pikachu on a couch in the Pokemon Center.

"No, what Pokemon did they go with?" Pikachu asked.

"Sceptile, Muk, Bulbasaur, Heracross, and Kingler," Unfezant answered.

"Did anyone else leave to look for Ash?"

"Well, Iris left for Sinnoh not too long ago. Brock and Misty are probably in Johto by now and Max is in Hoenn, Dawn said she was on her way there," Unfezant responded.

"Oh, okay. So everyone's on their way there?" Pikachu chirped.

"To my knowledge, yes," Unfezant replied.

"I'm assuming you overheard Cilan talking to our friends?"

Unfezant looked at the ground in shame. "...Yes..."

Pikachu noticed Unfezant looking down. "It's fine you listened to Cilan's conversations. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known this information until yesterday!"

Unfezant grinned at Pikachu.

"Okay, good! Anyway, Cilan seems a little stressed out. You think it's because of the fact that Ash's missing?" Unfezant said, lowering her voice so only Pikachu could hear.

 **(A/N: For God know's why I keep typing "here" instead of "hear.")**

"Um, duh, why wouldn't it be?" Pikachu whispered back.

"It could be family problems too, but you're probably right," Unfezant replied quietly, only slightly raising the volume of her voice.

"I always am," Pikachu smiled.

Unfezant giggled and continued talking.

"You think there's a way to lessen the stress?" she whispered.

"Find Ash."

* * *

So, after the wait, I've continued writing. I've been busy writing on Wattpad (Wattpad is Hatsareawsome77) my new fanfic that I started writing on June 14th, 2017. Very recent. (today's June 25th, 2017)

So, I'm putting that story on hold and continuing this one! Yay!


	4. The Search Begins

I'm ending this chapter without an Author's Note at the end. Your welcome~

 **WARNING: DEPRESSED/SUICIDAL ASH, DEATH, FIRST FANFIC, AND SUFFERING INCLUDED! DON'T LIKE DON'T READ! BTW, ASH IS 16, SO EVERYBODY EXCEPT CILAN, BROCK, MAX, + ALL THE ADULTS/CHILDREN (CILAN AND BROCK ARE YOUNG ADULTS) ARE 16 AND ABOVE/UNDER!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Otherwise, I'd make Luxray a legendary Pokemon

* * *

 **With Ash in the Present/3rd PoV**

Ash was still stuck walking in the huge forest he'd chose to just clear his mind in. It had snowed during the night, making things more difficult than they had to be.

'At least only one Pokemon has attacked me so far,' Ash thought.

Ash continued to walk aimlessly through the forest, every once in a while changing direction.

'I must be smack in the middle of the forest. Arceus dammit,' Ash thought as he walked up to one of the many large trees in the forest.

He sat against the large tree, needing to rest for a moment. Ash started thinking of another way to get out of this forest.

'I could climb this tree,' was the first thought that came into his head.

That's it! He could climb the tree and see the way out of the forest! Ash stood up and started climbing the tree. The first time he tried, his hat fell over his eyes causing him to fall. The second time, he slipped from the snowy tree and fell. The third time, however, he made it to the top.

...and it was snowy white trees in every direction.

"Damn."

* * *

 **With Pikachu in the Present/3rd PoV**

Pikachu was awoken in the morning by Cilan, who better have a good reason.

"Pikachu, good morning," Cilan said cheerfully.

Pikachu got up with a yawn and started over to Cilan.

"So, I have everything ready to go search for Ash, all we have to do is wait until everyone else is ready." Cilan grabbed a bag that looked to be packed to the brim with stuff.

"Okay. Where is the rest of Ash's Pokemon?" Pikachu chirped.

"What?" Cilan turned around in confusion, "I can't understand you."

'Oh, they're probably in their Pokeballs,' Pikachu thought.

Pikachu pointed to the Pokeballs of the other Pokemon. Cilan glanced at them briefly, before grabbing one of them.

"Go, Unfezant," Cilan yelled and threw the Pokeball.

Pikachu mumbled a 'thank you' and ran over to go play with Unfezant.

"Good morning, Pikachu," Unfezant greeted when Pikachu made it over.

"Good morning," Pikachu replied.

"What time is it?" Unfezant asked.

"Uh, I don't know. I just woke up," Pikachu responded honestly.

"Well, shall we find out?" Unfezant asked, running over to a clock.

Pikachu followed suit, making it right after Unfezant.

"8:39," the clock read.

"Okay, not that early," Unfezant murmured as they both walked away from the clock. **(A/N: I assume they wake up at around 7:00..?)**

When they both got back to where they were sitting, Cilan sent out the rest of Ash's Pokemon, along with his own.

"Hello, everybody," **(A/N: My name is Markiplier)** Pansage greets everybody.

"Hi," everybody else responds in unison.

Cilan turns around at the sudden uproar, looking at all the Pokemon in confusion.

"What?" Cilan asked as he walked over to the Pokemon.

"We're just saying hello," one of the Pokemon, identified as Leavanny, spoke up.

Cilan glanced up, still confused.

"Guys, he doesn't know what we're saying," Pansage said in a know-it-all kind of way.

Suddenly, Cilan's phone starts ringing. Cilan picks up his phone and answers the call.

"Hello?" You could hear multiple voices answer at once.

'It's a group chat,' Pikachu thought.

"Uh, yeah, we're ready now," one of the voices, identified as Dawn, said.

"Okay! So, I guess I'm going to head out, then, okay?" another voice, identified as Iris, replied.

"Okay. We'll be heading out as well," Dawn responded.

"Us too." This time, Cilan spoke.

Cilan returned all of us except for Pikachu and Pansage. He put on a winter coat and made his way out of the door to their room. Pansage and I followed, not disturbing Cilan as he was still on the phone.

We made our way to a forest that looked GIGANTIC with large trees all around. The three of us walked into the forest, just looking around.

"So, I guess I'll call you guys during lunch?" Cilan murmured into the phone.

"Yes. We'll all call each other at..." The person on the other end of the phone trailed off.

"12:00," someone else answered.

"Okay! 12:00 it is. Goodbye!" Cilan hung up and glanced down at us.

"Everybody, come on out," Cilan whisper-yelled, sending all of the Pokemon out of their Pokeballs.

"Okay, the plan is to stick together. Look around. Do _NOT_ make a sound," Cilan whisper-yelled.

"Okay," the Pokemon whisper-yelled back.

Some of the Pokemon got into groups, including Pikachu. He was in a group with Pansage, Unfezant, Krookodile, and Pikachu of course. Cilan was with them, too.

"Why does he want us to hide?" Unfezant whispered to Pikachu.

"I don't know, maybe he thinks Ash'll run away," he responded.

"Probably," Unfezant whispered back.

* * *

 **About 2 and a half hour(s) later~ around 12:00 (lol they haven't even found a trace of Ash :p)**

"It's lunch time," Cilan gasped as he glanced at his watch.

"Return," Cilan whisper-yelled, returning all the Pokemon except Pikachu and Unfezant.

Pikachu jumped on Cilan's shoulder as Cilan called the others.

"Hello?" everyone said in unison except Cilan.

"Hi, it's around 12:00 here..." Cilan trailed off.

"Oh, we forgot! Okay, lunch-time anyone?" May giggled.

"Uh, sure. Okay, we'll call you guys back when we get back!" Brock hung up.

"Bye to you guys, too-" Dawn was cut off by Iris.

"Wait! Do you guys know anyone named Gary?"

"Yeah, did you meet him?" Dawn answered.

"Yes."

"Yeah, he's Ash's childhood friend and former rival," Dawn continued.

"Okay, well he wants to help loo-" Iris was cut off.

"Yeah, he can help look if he wants to," Dawn answered.

"Very well, goodbye everyone." This time, Cilan hung up.

"That's interesting," Pikachu mused.

"What?"

"Nevermind." Pikachu looked away.

"So, where is the way out of this forest, Unfezant?" Cilan asked the Proud-Pokemon.

Unfezant flew up above the trees in search of the way out of this forest. A few minutes later, she returned, pointing in a certain direction. West. She pointed west.

"Okay, thank you!" Cilan smiled, returning Unfezant. He then proceeded to walk in the direction Unfezant pointed.

* * *

 **About 10 minutes later~ around 12:20 (Pokemon Center)**

Cilan and Pikachu made their way inside Cilan, Chili, and Cress' diner for lunch.

"Hello, Cilan," Chili greeted Cilan.

"Hello, Chili," responded Cilan.

"I assume you're here for lunch?" Chili smiled.

"Yep," Cilan replied.

"Okay, well what do you want to eat?"


	5. Meanwhile

The most dramatic chapter title ever... By the way, I listened to a Creepypasta while writing the beginning, so if it gets dark, that's why.

 **WARNING: DEPRESSED/SUICIDAL ASH, DEATH, FIRST FANFIC, AND SUFFERING INCLUDED! DON'T LIKE DON'T READ! BTW, ASH IS 16, SO EVERYBODY EXCEPT CILAN, BROCK, MAX, + ALL THE ADULTS/CHILDREN (CILAN AND BROCK ARE YOUNG ADULTS) ARE 16 AND ABOVE/UNDER!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. If I did, I'd make Alolan Ash look like XY(Z) Ash.

Also, there's an unspoken Time-Skip before this chapter begins, around 20 minutes long. Just skipped lunch!

* * *

 **With Ash In the Present/3rd PoV**

After Ash's discovery of the size of this forest, he decided that if he walked in a straight line, he'd eventually get out, right? Heh, well, he'd after to sacrifice food and rest.

Well, it was around 1:00 and he were _starving._ No berry bushes were in sight.

'Ugh, I'm going to have to find something to eat,' Ash thought.

He walked around for a little while, just looking for _something_ to eat.

...But no type of food was in sight. Ash wouldn't give up, though. He just kept walking in random directions, hoping to find food.

Eventually, he came to a small berry bush that had around 3 berries. The berries were the same ones as before, "OBs." Ash would take anything at this point! He picked the three berries from the bush and ate them, not as hungry as before, but still starving...

* * *

 **With Misty and Brock in the Present/3rd PoV**

After lunch, Misty and Brock headed back to a random route. They'd gotten off the phone with their friends shortly after they left. Now, they're walking in silence down Route 32 looking around in hopes to see a familiar face.

All their Pokemon, along with some of Ash's accompanied them.

As they continued walking, they got a call from the group chat. Brock answered the phone.

"Hello?" multiple voices on the other end of the phone said in unison.

No answer. About a minute had passed, but the one who called never spoke. Until Dawn spoke.

"Oops! I accidentally called the group chat! Sorry!" ( **A/N: You know, when your phone's in your pocket and you're walking and it calls someone.)**

"Nice job, Dawn," Gary said.

"Wait, what? Why's Gary here?" Brock asked.

"Yeah, why's Gary here?" May repeated the question Brock asked.

"Uh, Iris let me help search," Gary answered.

"Yeah, we let him join," Dawn chirped.

"Very well," Brock replied.

"Yeah, very well," May repeated.

Brock hung up and continued walking with Misty on Route 32.

"What happened?" Misty asked, glancing up at Brock.

"Dawn accidentally called the group chat. Also, did you know Gary joined Iris our search for Ash?" Brock answered.

"No. That's cool." Misty continued walking next to Brock.

"Okay," Brock replied.

It was only silence for a while as they looked around in Route 32 until Misty broke it the silence.

"Hey, Brock? Do you think we'll be able to find Ash in time?" Misty asked quietly.

"Of course, why wouldn't we?" Brock answered, not too sure himself.

"Uh, Ash could already be dead, you know," Misty mumbled. Brock didn't hear her, though.

"Can you tell me when it's 9:00?" Brock asked after a while.

"What's at 9:00?"

"We decided that we'd be on our way at 9:00," Brock answered.

"Okay, I can do that," Misty murmured, loud enough for Brock to hear.

"Good! What time is it now?" Brock asked while they kept walking.

"Uh," Misty glanced at Brock's watch, "12:30."

"Exactly 12:30?"

"No," Misty giggled.

"Oh well," Brock sighed.

If it seems messy from here, the first time I wrote it, I hadn't saved in awhile. Then, I was getting ready to end the chapter, and I pressed, control+w instead of shift+w.

They continued talking, not noticing the flicker of movement until Brock noticed it. The Pokemon seemed to have noticed it, too, because they had stopped and had been looking around, trying to locate where the movement was coming from. Suddenly, a Raticate and a trainer jumped out in front of them.

"My name's Taylor and I challenge you to a Pokemon battle," the trainer, now identified as Taylor, yelled and pointed at Brock and Misty. The trainer had blond hair with a red bow in it. She was wearing an orange shirt with jean shorts that went down to her knees. She was carrying a small orange bag.

"Okay, sure," Misty yelled back.

Brock shot Misty a confused glance but went along with it anyway.

"Okay, go Raticate and Houndoom," Taylor yelled and sent out her Houndoom as her Raticate ran in front of her.

"Go, Croagunk!"

"Go, Gyarados!"

'Shit, well I'm not going to win _this_ battle. Now I'm going to have to go to the Pokemon Center! Arceus dammit,' Taylor thought in frustration.

"Okay, Raticate, use Hyper Fang," Taylor shouted. Raticate started charging at Croagunk.

"Gyarados, use Hydro Pump," Misty yelled. The Gyarados shot a focused beam of water at Houndoom, causing it to faint immediately.

"Dodge it," Taylor yelled, but a little too late. Taylor returned Houdoom to its Pokeball.

"Croagunk, Brick Break," Brock yelled. Croagunk's hand(?) started to glow and it swung it as Raticate, who was close enough. Raticate was sent flying across the field.

"Return," Taylor whispered in defeat as she returned her fainted Pokemon.

"Okay, good battle," Misty said, returning Gyarados and rushing across to shake hands with the other trainer.

"Yeah, we ought to be going," Brock chimed in, gesturing to the rest of the Pokemon and running over to shake hands with Taylor.

"Okay, best wishes with your traveling." Taylor grinned cheerfully and started making her way towards the nearest town in the opposite direction of Misty and Brock.

"You too," Misty and Brock yelled and started their search for Ash once again.

When Taylor was out of sight, Brock whispered to Misty:

"Boy, she was pretty."

"Oh, Brock. Stop thinking of that," Misty whispered angrily.

"What? Thinking of what?" Brock asked quickly.

"You know! Stop thinking of Taylor," Misty answered, still angry.

"Fine! Fine," Brock responded in defeat.

"Good," Misty growled and continued searching for Ash.

* * *

Oh. My. God. Took WAY too long! I ended up accidentally deleting the battle with Taylor, Arceus. I had the patience to rewrite it because it was one of the only things that were interesting in this chapter. I feel weak... Anyway, thank you for reading this chapter of Mission A: Find Ash~


	6. Hunger

...Whatever it takes- Sorry, I'm listening to Whatever it Takes by Imagine Dragons. Anyway, thank you, my non-existent followers, for this blessing of you reading this far!

 **WARNING: DEPRESSED/SUICIDAL ASH, DEATH, FIRST FANFIC, AND SUFFERING INCLUDED! DON'T LIKE DON'T READ! BTW, ASH IS 16, SO EVERYBODY EXCEPT CILAN, BROCK, MAX, + ALL THE ADULTS/CHILDREN (CILAN AND BROCK ARE YOUNG ADULTS) ARE 16 AND ABOVE/UNDER!**

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. If I did, I'd make some muffins!

Also, another non-existent Time Skip to the next day.

* * *

 **With Ash in the Present/3rd PoV**

Ash was not doing okay. He'd managed to fall asleep against a tree but woke up in the morning starving, like he was yesterday. He was so hungry, he didn't notice the movement in the trees until a Pokemon leaped in front of him.

"What the hell," Ash yelped in surprise. He recognized this Pokemon, as he once owned one. It was a Pidove, obviously wanting to battle.

"Pidove, Pi-dove." Pidove flew up into the air, glowing white and started charging at Ash at full speed. A powerful gust of wind made it to where he couldn't escape.

'Quick Attack and Gust,' Ash thought in fear.

The Pidove ended up ramming into Ash, knocking him into the tree that was right behind him. The Pidove then left. What a mean Pidove!

Ash fell down from the tree and winced. His back hurt more than it already did from sleeping against a tree. The back of his head hurt from whacking the tree. He'd felt better before.

Ash just sat there, unable to move. If he moved, he got hurt. He didn't want to get hurt. He could move, but he didn't want to. So, he didn't move.

Just a recap, Ash's into the third day of being lost and he was starving, his body felt like they were on fire, he was freezing, and he was in the middle of a huge forest.

'After a rainstorm comes a rainbow,' Ash thought as optimistically as he could. Little does Ash know, he's not in a rainstorm.

 _He's in a snowstorm._

* * *

 **With Tracey and May in the Present/3rd PoV AND IF I GET SHIT WRONG ABOUT TRACEY AND MAY, I NEVER REALLY WATCHED ORANGE ISLANDS OR ASH'S JOURNEY THROUGH HOENN**

Tracey woke up in the room he shared with him and May. May was still asleep on the bed next to his. Tracey glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand in between the two beds. "7:13" the clock read.

'Oh, I better start getting ready,' Tracey thought, getting up out of bed. He grabbed some clothes out of his backpack and headed to the bathroom. Tracey used the bathroom, brushed his teeth, took a shower, got dressed, and went to make a sandwich for his breakfast.

After he ate his sandwich, Tracey looked at the clock again. "7:25" the clock read.

'I should probably wake up May... Yeah, I'll wake her up,' Tracey thought and made his way back to his and May's room.

"May! Wake up," Tracey said gently, shaking May.

"No..." May mumbled and turned over.

"YES," Tracey yelled, scaring the shit out of May. May fell off the bed.

"TRACEY, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR," May screamed, sitting up.

"YOU WOULDN'T WAKE UP, I HAD TO DO SOMETHING," Tracey yelled back.

"HOLY SHIT, OKAY CALM DOWN," May yelled.

"FINE," Tracey yelled, calming down.

"Okay, now get ready to go. You said we're going out at 8, right?" Tracey looked May in the eyes.

"Yeah, we decided we'd be heading out at around 8," May answered, getting up and grabbing her clothes to get ready for the day. May went into the bathroom, used the bathroom, brushed her teeth, took a shower, got dressed, brushed her hair, and went out into the kitchen.

"Hello, I made you a sandwich for your breakfast," Tracey said as cheerfully as he could, handing May a peanut butter sandwich.

"Thanks, Tracey," May purred. She glanced at the clock, which read "7:39."

"Well, we have 20 minutes to fuck around." May grinned at Tracey.

Tracey glanced up at May and then at the clock. He looked back at May, eyebrow raised. "What do you want to do?"

"Uh, what can we do?" May asked.

"Well, we can just talk, we could-" Tracey started, but was cut off by May.

"That's it, we can talk," May exclaimed suddenly.

"Okay," Tracey agreed, grabbing his Pokeballs.

"What do you need with your Pokemon?" May asked as Tracey sent out his Scyther, Marill, and Venonat. He also grabbed the four Pokemon that Ash owned that would help them look, Muk, Sceptile, Bulbasaur, and Kingler.

"I need to feed them. You guys are hungry, right?" Tracey asked, glancing down at his Pokemon. His Pokemon chirped and nodded in response.

"Oh! I almost forgot! Go, Blazeikin, Wartortle, Munchlax, Beautifly, and Glaceon," May said, sending out her Pokemon she had currently.

Tracey already had a bag of Pokemon food(?) for his Pokemon. He grabbed three bowls, pouring Pokemon food in them and setting them down in front of his Pokemon. May did the same.

"So, did you watch the new cooking competition? It's supposed to be the biggest this year," Tracey asked, nonchalantly.

May raised an eyebrow. "The one with Brad Husher?"

"No, the one with Mason Degray," Tracey corrected.

"Oh, that one! Yeah, I watched a little bit of that last week," May replied.

"Isabella Saywell bombed it and didn't even go home! Poor Ethan Nestor went home instead," Tracey continued.

"I know, right?! But that Sophia girl was just plain annoying, right?"

"Sophia Harper? Yeah, she was pretty obnoxious. But that Mattew Frederick guy was funny."

"Yeah, he was pretty funny. One of the judges was really harsh. I forgot her name-" May was cut off.

"Avery Mercy?" Tracey asked.

"Yeah! She was really mean, Ethan's dish didn't even look that bad and she scored him a 2," May fumed.

"So true! Avery just was too harsh, she needed to tone it down a bit. The other judges seemed pissed because she was rating the contestants unfairly."

"...As they should be. The other judge, Tyler was it? Well, he seemed like he was ready to punch Avery when she rated Ethan a 2."

"Tyler Schied. I don't know if you noticed, but the other judge that was a guy also seemed-"

"Mark Fischbach? He looked like he was going to punch Avery?"

"Yeah, he definitely looked pissed."

This conversation continued for around five more minutes until May pointed at the clock. **(A/N: The author is getting tired of writing this conversation.)**

"Well, look at that," May pointed a the clock, "it's 7:55!"

"Five more minutes." Tracey glanced at his and Ash's Pokemon. As if on cue, May got a call from the group chat.

"Hello?" multiple voices including May greeted.

"Hi, well it's 8:00 here," Dawn said.

"Okay, well we can head out over here even though it's not 8:00 yet," May decided quickly, glancing up at Tracey.

"Same, okay we'll be heading out as well," Cilan agreed.

"Us too, right Brock?" Misty agreed.

"Okay! Goodbye." May hung up.

"Shall we be heading out then?" Tracey grinned.

"Yeah, okay c'mon guys! It's time to head out," May said as cheerfully as she could, grabbing her Pokeballs, returning her Pokemon, and making her way towards the door, Tracey doing the same.

They made their way to Route 3, weaving past everyone in Pewter City who were still in a frenzy. When they made it to Route 3, they started searching their dear friend, Ash Ketchum.

* * *

Wow, that got dark quick at the beginning

This chapter felt weird to me for some reason. It wasn't just the dark beginning, it was something else in the rest of the story. Maybe it's because I've never written a chapter that's just filler before..? I mean, nothing happened in this chapter, except introducing random characters that'll never get an appearance, besides Avery Mercy.

One more thing, I didn't create Mark Fischbach, Tyler Schied, Ethan Nestor, or Matthew Frederick.

Mark Fischbach=Markiplier (youtube)  
Tyler Shied=Apocalypto_12 (twitter)  
Ethan Nestor=CrankGameplays (youtube)  
Mattew Frederick=Matthias (youtube)  
Just some of my favorite people that I've never meant before

THANK YOU FOR READING CHAPTER SIX OF Mission A: Find Ash


	7. Hope

...and I said I wasn't going to continue this! HaH, what a joke! Well, you see, I left Wattpad cuz I realized any site on the internet'll be shit so I'm back! I know, I left in July and it's December now. I get it.

 **WARNING: DEPRESSED/SUICIDAL ASH, DEATH, FIRST FANFIC, AND SUFFERING INCLUDED! DON'T LIKE DON'T READ! BTW, ASH IS 16! SO EVERYBODY EXCEPT CILAN, BROCK, MAX, + ALL THE ADULTS/CHILDREN (CILAN AND BROCK ARE YOUNG ADULTS) ARE 16 AND ABOVE/UNDER!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. If I did, I sure as hell wouldn't be writing a fanfic.

Time skip cuz that's apparently the only way I can write

* * *

 **With Ash in the Present/3rd PoV**

Ash wasn't doing too well. It was night, of course, so it was freezing outside.

'But,' his always optimistic mind supplied, 'at least your not dead.'

But was death better than the pain he was going through?

'No, because your friends'll find you.'

Ash, through half closed eyes, saw a Pokemon inch towards him. It was a Lillipup, if he recalled. It sniffed his hand. Ash smiled.

"Hey," Ash said softly, building up his strength. He reached out to pet the Lillipup.

The Lillipup looked at his face at the contact, and inched closer to Ash. It laid next to him.

Ash raised an eyebrow. He'd been attacked twice, but the Lillipup decided to be nice to him. Ash pondered this thought for a moment, before blowing it off as an "act of kindness."

Or did someone send a friend for him?

Ash looked up into the sky with new found hope.

"If anyone can hear me," Ash whispered, "send someone to find me and get me out of here."

* * *

 **With Max and Dawn in the Present/3rd PoV and I'm so sorry I don't know Dawniel or Maxine**

The both of them had been walking for a good long time now, and Max was tired. And Dawn seemed to be tired, too. Dawn checked her watch, and it read "8:37" in large red letters.

"What time is it?" Max asked.

"Past time. We were supposed to go in 40 minutes ago! Why didn't anyone call?" Dawn said, stopping and turning to Max, "Well, it's time to go."

"Go, Togekiss!" Dawn shouted, "Can you tell us which way to go?" Togekiss flew up into the air, and pointed Southeast. Dawn called up the group chat while she returned Togekiss. Max started off Southeast, Dawn following close behind.

"It's 8:40," was the first thing Dawn said as someone picked up.

"Oh, it is!" the person on the other end shouted. Others picked up almost immediately after.

'Everyone else,' Max presumed. Though that's not an important thought.

"How come no one called?" someone else asked.

"I didn't realize until now!" Dawn said.

"Neither did I."

"Nor did I. Well, thank you for telling us, Dawn. I guess we'll all head back now." They hung up.

"Your welcome," Dawn answered, hanging up as well. She turned to Max.

"Anything happen?" he asked Dawn.

"No, not yet," Dawn said, speeding up to catch up to Max.

"So we have 2 weeks left to find him before he's pronounced dead?"

"Yeah," Dawn answered. They walked in silence, the only sound being the cracking of sticks as they walked through the forest. After a long while of walking, they finally emerged from the line of trees.

Walking past the chaos of the streets, they entered the Pokemon Center. Max and Dawn then proceeded to walk to their respective rooms, Dawn going to room 123 and Max going to room 122, saying their goodbyes quickly as they entered their rooms.

Dawn flopped onto her bed as soon as she got their. She had ought to go eat dinner, but she was too tired right now. But then again, she really was hungry...

Dawn groaned, getting out of her bed and going to the door. She turned the knob and turned towards room 122, walking towards it and knocking on the door. Max answered, looking up at her curiously.

"What do yo-"

"Dinner," Dawn interrupted.

"Oh, yeah! Okay, let's go get dinner." Dawn stepped out of the way and Max stepped out of his room.

They walked through the hallways to the cafeteria in the Pokemon Center. There were about 10 other people in the large cafeteria.

'I guess not many people are eating dinner at 9:00,' Dawn thought bitterly as they went up. They were serving spaghetti and salad. Dawn ordered the salad while Max ordered the spaghetti. With their food, they sat at an empty table.

They ate, talked, ate some more, and were done. It's wasn't a big dinner, as it wasn't meant to be a eaten on Thanksgiving. But Dawn would take it, though now she just wanted to sleep.

As Dawn and Max were heading down the halls to their rooms, Max looked up at her.

"Do you think Ash is here in Hoenn?" Max asked.

"I don't know," Dawn said, keeping her eyes glued in front of her, "maybe."

"Would you rather he be in Hoenn, or another region?" Max continued.

"Um, I don't know. As long as he's not dead." Dawn wasn't completely sure how to respond, but all she knew was that Ash probably wasn't in Hoenn, and if he was they hadn't found him yet. No one had found him yet, but Dawn'd be lying if she said that she thought anyone'd give up on looking for the boy.

They arrived at their rooms, unlocking and walking into them. Dawn flopped onto the bed, turned off the light and turned over, not bothering to change into more comfortable clothes. She did eventually take off her shoes, but then almost immediately after, she fell asleep.

Dawn had an odd dream that night. She dreamed that Ash was, in fact, in Hoenn, and he was in the forest they'd recently started looking in. They didn't find him in time, he died. Everyone looked down upon her and Max. They blamed each other for it. Dawn was alone, and she assumed Max was as well.

Dawn awoke near the end of her dream to her alarm clock she'd set the day before. Forcing herself to get up, she heaved herself out of bed. Doing her normal routine of changing into normal winter clothes, brushing her hair and teeth, and going to make sure Max's ready, Dawn thought about her dream. Of course, it was fiction; it was a dream for pete's sake. But Dawn couldn't wrap her mind around that fact. It had felt so real.

When Max emerged from his room, he looked similar to yesterday. Except today, he looked only slightly more tired.

"You ready?" Dawn asked as they walked out the door to go find their friend.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Max said and followed her out the door.

They both went down to the forest they were on yesterday, it was their last day in it. Tomorrow, they'd be in a different forest, connected to a different city.

"Where are we going tomorrow?" Max asked once they'd entered the forest.

"Well, I think we're gonna head to Rustboro City-"

Dawn's phone ringing interrupted their chat. Dawn grabbed her phone out of her pocket and answered it. Someone immediately started talking.

"-yeah. Oh, I just called to tell you we're heading out," someone said into the phone. Max didn't know who. He hadn't heard them talk in person.

"Oh, yeah. We're just now leaving the Pokemon Center," Dawn answered.

"Great! I'm assuming Cilan, who's actually the only one who didn't answer-"

"I'm here now, you realize this, right?" someone else quipped.

"You weren't here when Dawn answered!" the person defended.

"But I am now. Finish that sentence from before, yeah?"

There was a grumble as Dawn giggled.

"Well now that we know everyone is leaving or has already left..?"

"Yes. Everyone is leaving. We're good."

"Okay then, goodbye, I guess," Dawn said. She hung up and turned to Max.

"Anyway, we're going to Rustboro City tomorrow. There has to be at least one forest around there," Dawn said.

Dawn released her pokemon soon after that. She yelled their name and something like "go!", Max doing the same.

"Well, guys, I think maybe we could find him today. I don't think we'll need to go to Rustboro."

"Maybe," Max agreed. For the first time since Ash disappeared, they were both feeling hopeful.

* * *

 **...Only to have that happiness seeped from within their hearts as the day ended without a clue where Ash was besides "a forest, because if he was in a city, we'd have already found him!" Haha, tough luck! He's in Unova. In the middle of the biggest forest in Unova. With only a Lillipup as company. HE BOUT TO CAST AWAY THIS... CRAP.  
**


End file.
